


Let Me Photograph You in This Light

by GloriaGilbertPatch



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-09 00:02:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 16,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7778800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaGilbertPatch/pseuds/GloriaGilbertPatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Harvey-and-Scottie-at-Harvard vignette fics, because I might as well start keeping them in one place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. you feel like home

**Author's Note:**

> I am not affiliated with Suits, and all references in these stories are either invented or are used fictitiously. Titles are from Adele's, "When We Were Young."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back-to-school.
> 
> August 1998.

“Harvey,” she said casually, trying – and possibly succeeding? – to cover up the butterflies that filled her stomach as she looked up at the face of the man she’d spent the better part of spring semester sleeping with but hadn’t seen since. Yup, he was still as handsome as ever, and it was almost annoying.

“Hi, Scottie, how was your summer?” he asked, just as casually, but there was a bit of a glint in his eye that made her think he was more than just offhandedly happy to see her. “You were interning on the First Circuit, right?”

“Yup,” she agreed immediately. “And you were on the Second Circuit?”

“SDNY,” he corrected.

“Close enough,” she shrugged, but he _had_ to know that she’d known that, that her sophisticated indifference was an act, right?

“Literally across the street,” he said smoothly, and they stared at each other another few moments, neither wanting to give in.

“It’s good to see you again,” Dana said finally, and Harvey instantly offered her a charming grin.

“I know,” he replied smugly. “You missed me desperately.”

“It’s true; seeing you every day is a constant reminder of my inherent superiority,” she shot back, but she knew she was smiling and she knew he’d missed her, too.

“Whatever you say. You never answered my question, by the way; did you have a good summer?”

“It was fine. Not to mention it’s pretty great not to have to do any unpacking,” she added with a smirk, positive that Harvey’s apartment would be filled with half-empty boxes and garbage bags for at least the next month.

“Excellent, I’m sleeping over tonight,” he said, smirking right back, and the butterflies kicked it up to eleven.

“No, that’s not presumptuous at all,” she said sarcastically.

“What, are you gonna go back to pretending you don’t want to sleep with me? ‘Cause I have some pretty strong evidence against that.”

“What you have is hearsay, and no, I’m not pretending anything. You didn’t exactly make much of an effort to talk to me this summer – ”

“ – I was busy; there was some family stuff – ”

“ – which is _fine_ , but it means you don’t get to _expect_ me to fall into bed with you right away.”

“You’re punishing me for having family stuff?”

“I’m not punishing you at all. I’m just saying, I don’t think our current arrangement allows you to invite yourself over to spend the night.”

“What is our current arrangement?” he asked, his expression softening, and Dana bit back her simultaneous nerves and excitement.

“I’m…not exactly sure,” she admitted. “But, Harvey, you’re acting like you’re my boyfriend, and you’re not that.” His face fell.

“Aren’t I?”

“I mean, we never talked about it. We never said anything about being exclusive, or…anything. And you didn’t _call_. And like I said, that’s _fine_ , but…a boyfriend would have called, you know?”

“I don’t think you understand just how much men hate telephones,” Harvey teased, but he was giving her a gentler look than she’d ever seen on his face before.

“Harvey…”

“Scottie. I _would’ve_ called if I had thought…and by the way, _you_ didn’t exactly make much of an effort…”

“You missed my _birthday_ ,” she pointed out, and her façade must have cracked slightly because his face immediately fell.

“But I didn’t _forget_ ,” he assured her. “August 4, 1975.”

“You’re not supposed to say the year when you’re talking about a woman,” Dana said, smiling a little.

“I thought that didn’t apply until she turned thirty,” he said, earnestly enough that she was laughing.

“I’m starting early,” she informed him, and he smiled and hooked an arm around her waist, pulling her close.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you, Scottie,” he told her. “And I did miss you this summer. And…if you want me to, I think I want…”

“You want what?” she asked, pulling away enough to look him in the face, her hands flat on his chest. She could feel his heart pounding and was pretty sure she knew what, but he had to say it.

“I want to be your boyfriend,” he said softly, offering her a slightly nervous smile as he looked down at her. Dana smiled back and let her hands creep up until her arms were around his neck.

“Good,” she replied, giving him a quick squeeze. “I want you to, too.” She laughed a little. “And yes, you can sleep over, since I know you won’t have sheets on your bed until Columbus Day at the _earliest_.”

“Hey, what are you talking about?” he said, mock defensively.

“I mean, unless you were counting on me to do it for you,” she grinned. “But I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”

An empty threat if ever she’d made one, and she knew it, but in the meantime she was taking Harvey back to her own bed tonight.

\--

Later, when he was pressed up against her, their skin cooling under the breeze that blew in through her open bedroom window, and Dana was very nearly perfectly relaxed and content, she heard Harvey murmur almost completely under his breath, something she wouldn’t have even thought she was supposed to hear if he hadn’t led with her name.

“Scottie?”

“Hmm?” she said, not turning around even as his arm got a little bit heavier on her waist.

“The family stuff I mentioned…”

“Yeah?”

He drew in a long breath, and now she was curious. There was a reason he’d waited until they weren’t looking each other in the face, though; there had to be, so she still didn’t turn around, just moved a little bit closer into his body.

“My mom cheated on my dad,” he said finally, and she could hear how much effort had gone into saying it.

“I’m so sorry,” she answered, reaching for the hand that was resting against her belly and interlacing her fingers with his. “Are they…?”

“They’re splitting up,” he confirmed. “She’s leaving him.”

“She’s…” Dana began, confused, and he sighed into her neck.

“He loves her,” he said, in the manner she might have expected him to say, _He has terminal cancer_. “He would’ve forgiven her anything if she promised not to do it again, but she…”

At that, Dana felt Harvey’s body shake in a particularly distinctive way, and was almost positive the dampness against her hairline was not sweat, and she couldn’t help rolling over, carefully, in his arms, to wrap her own around him and press her lips into his chest.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. _I love you_ , she wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come out when she tried. She clung to him, instead, and pretended not to notice that he was crying.


	2. from the way you talk to the way you move

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For @candyumbrella on tumblr, some post-traumatic-Stemple-disorder. Do note that I'm fudging a little both with how Harvard-on-the-show does moot court and how Harvard-in-real-life does moot court.
> 
> March 2000.

“Harvey. Harvey, come on, it’s just me, answer the door.” Dana sighed and rolled her eyes a little, shaking her head as she stared at the firmly closed door of her petulant-child boyfriend’s apartment.

“Harvey, come on, I’m stark naked and it’s cold out,” she said, not even ashamed of the lie.

“Fine, Scottie, come in. The door’s unlocked,” he called back, and shit. She tried the knob and yup, the door was indeed unlocked. Fucking Harvey.

He was sitting on the couch in his dress shirt and boxer shorts and frowned noticeably at her when he’d gotten enough of a look to realize that she was fully dressed.

“False representation,” he grumbled. “I don’t want to talk to you.” Dana took off her coat with a sigh and sat down next to him, wedging herself tightly between his body and the arm of the couch when he wouldn’t move over to make room.

“Fine,” she said, coolly, pulling a magazine out of her bag. “Sit there and pout silently, and I’ll catch up on my celebrity sex tips.” Harvey turned a little and gave her a slightly interested look, but Dana studiously directed her attention to her copy of _Glamour_ , a rare indulgence given how much time she had to spend reading more serious items, but then again she was well on her way to graduating from Harvard Law School and going on to clerk for Justice O’Connor, so she figured she could take a couple of minutes to be a normal twenty-four-year-old girl.

“What?” she asked, when he wouldn’t stop staring.

“Aren’t you gonna try to make me feel better?” he answered, turning his brown eyes on her like a little beagle puppy. She raised her eyebrows and closed the magazine over her hand.

“You made it pretty clear you didn’t want to talk to me; forgive me for having an alternate plan.”

Harvey pouted slightly, making Dana bite back a smile. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to give him what he wanted; it was just that he was _so_ predictable, and playing him was half the fun. Not to mention he never actually wanted anything that fell into his lap, anyway.

“It’s not as if you’ve ever beaten him,” he muttered, and at that she really did have to roll her eyes.

“That would be a persuasive argument if I had ever competed against him,” she said tartly. “Or, frankly, if I had ever had any interest whatsoever in participating in law school moot court.” She shook her head.

“He’s just a slimy, snivelly…”

“See, and that’s your problem, Harvey; he gets under your skin and you can’t get over it.”

“Oh, fine, psychoanalyze me; it’s very productive.”

“Harvey. Have some perspective. It’s fucking moot court. Caring about moot court is like caring who wins the summer softball league.” She paused a moment. “Actually, I’ve heard some firms make offers based on the summer softball league, so never mind. Still. You have everything you came to law school for.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, sulkily. Dana shook her head a little.

“It _means_ your grades are excellent; you’re on a respectable journal; you’ve got a good starter job lined up and another one for after that. And that’s not even mentioning the _stunningly_ beautiful and intelligent young woman who has deigned to be your girlfriend,” she added, batting her eyes and throwing him a cheeky smile. He smiled back, a little reluctantly, as he slid his arm around her waist and leaned closer to kiss her neck. She tilted her head and let him pull her into his lap, shivering slightly as his lips trailed lightly along her throat towards the low V-neck of her shirt.

“Harvey?” she asked, slightly bemused but already well on the way towards aroused. “What happened to, ‘I don’t want to talk to you’?”

“Am I talking?” he growled, shifting a little underneath her as he popped the button on her jeans and let one hand wander between her legs, and she stifled a moan.

“He wants you,” Harvey said roughly, “he wants you, and he can’t have you.”

She would have protested at his caveman-like ideas about ownership, but then he was tapping patterns into her dampening panties and it could probably wait. Well, that and the fact that possessive-sex-to-make-Harvey-feel-better-and-thus-be-bearable-again had been part of the whole plan in the first place.

His free hand clung to her waist, tightly enough that she idly wondered if she would bruise, though she honestly didn’t care if she did. His fingers had found a steady rhythm and between that and the insistence of his mouth on her neck Dana was struggling for breath.

He shifted slightly underneath her, and suddenly she could feel the press of his cock, hard and hot underneath her ass, and even though they’d been sleeping together for two years; even though she was a pretty girl writhing in the lap of a young man, it still sent a jolt through her to know that he _wanted_ her. She wriggled impatiently against his fingers and heard him chuckle softly into her collarbone.

“Fuck, Harvey,” she gasped, and he chuckled again but indulged her, speeding up his movements until she was moaning helplessly and then he was drawing out her orgasm as the aftershocks pulsed through her and she slumped limply in his arms.

“Fuck,” she sighed again, shuddering, as Harvey laid her gently on the couch, carefully withdrawing his hand from her jeans and setting about removing them altogether. She let him take them off, and her panties, too, but stopped him when she felt him start to move over her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice gentle but his breath harsh on her neck. Dana quickly shook her head.

“Nothing,” she assured him. “Just – let’s go to the bedroom, okay?” Harvey nodded a little and stood up, offering a hand to help her to her feet even as his eyes raked over her now half-naked body. The head of his dick poked eagerly through the flap on his boxers, and under slightly different circumstances she would have burst into giggles and reached out to play with it, but not today. Instead she led him to his bedroom, pulled off her long-sleeved T-shirt, unhooked her bra, and lay down spread-eagle on the bed. He gave her a heated look and she was buzzing again at how completely she had his attention and desire.

“Take off your clothes and get down here,” she said, her voice lower than she expected, and he scrambled out of his shirt and underwear, so quickly that she suspected he might have lost a button, but then he was on top of her, poised to push inside her. He paused and raised his eyebrows a little at her, and she responded by wrapping her thighs around his waist, gasping slightly as she felt him fill her. He groaned appreciatively, and Dana studiously emptied her mind, focusing on how good it felt and how much she loved him to drive out how ridiculous it was that she was in love with a grown man whose sadness at losing at _moot court_ was great enough that she had had to engineer a display of his masculine dominance to make him feel better.

It might have been more ridiculous if she didn’t enjoy it so much.

He was moving furiously, really plowing her, and she tilted her hips so that he could get deeper, thrilling to the way he was losing control of his body. Her hands tightened on his back, her nails digging into his shoulder blades as his face reddened with exertion and his eyes fluttered shut. She raised her legs even higher, until her thighs were almost flat against her abdomen and Harvey’s moans had become constant.

“Fuck – yes – ” he stuttered, his whole body going tense and his knuckles, braced against the bed, turning white. Dana tightened around him and he let out a strangled cry before slumping, boneless, on top of her. She waited a couple of moments, letting him linger, kissing him softly on the neck and running her hands along his back and then into his hair, before speaking, wryly.

“I hereby promise that Elliott Stemple will never, ‘have me,’” she assured him, and Harvey let out a breathy chuckle.

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” he half-sighed, rolling over onto his back. Dana grinned a little and got to her feet, heading to the bathroom to clean up and brush her teeth. When she came back into the bedroom, dressed in one of Harvey’s undershirts and her own discarded panties, he was spread out on the bed and snoring lightly. She shook her head a little as she checked the locks, turned out the light, and got into bed next to him. Her work was done.

\--

Of course, the next day the _Crimson_ ran Stemple’s ad, and, really, if her grades suffered because of too much therapeutic sex, she was blaming that slimy, snivelly lame-o for every point.


	3. that's what you said when you left me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting Harvey's dad.
> 
> November 1999.

It was eight o’clock in the evening on the day before Thanksgiving, and any normal 3L would have already been drinking up a storm with her high school friends in her hometown: The offer had been extended and accepted, and slacking a little bit wouldn’t drop her grades low enough for it to be rescinded. But Dana Scott wasn’t a normal 3L; she was first in her class at Harvard, and that was more important to her than trekking out to her parents’ house and dealing with all of her relatives’ constant hints about marriage and babies that had only gotten worse since Andrew had gotten a wife and a baby.

Besides, Harvey was staying, and even if studying hadn’t beaten out family time, sex definitely beat out catching up with all the people she hadn’t bothered to keep in touch with.

“Sounds great,” he was saying into the phone as she sat on the couch in his apartment, legs tucked up under her, as she idly thumbed through a hideously boring article on the ICJ.

“Yeah, hold on, I’ll ask her,” he added, and that was enough to make Dana look up. Harvey covered the mouthpiece of the phone and looked over at her.

“Scottie, do you want to go out to Harvard Square tonight? My dad’s band’s in town and they’re playing.”

She shrugged.

“Sure, sounds like fun. What kind of music?”

“Uh, jazz, mostly – hey, Dad, she’s up for it, we’ll see you there. Yeah, you too. Okay. Bye.” He was grinning when he hung up, and Dana couldn’t help grinning back.

“So, drinks and live music and meeting your dad?”

Harvey nodded.

“He says their set gets started at nine; if we leave now we can probably make it in time.” He said it casually, almost as if it didn’t matter, but it was obvious and kind of endearing how excited he was.

“Okay,” she said easily, rising from the couch and dropping her reading on the coffee table. She glanced down at her jeans and tank top – a bit casual for some of the nicer places in Harvard Square, but she was willing to go out on a limb and assume Mr. Specter was playing somewhere a bit divey-er, just based on what little she knew about the man. Besides, Harvey was in jeans himself, so –

 _Stop it, Dana. He’s a traveling musician who was never home when Harvey was a kid, who was willing to let Harvey miss out on graduating over Marcus’s medicine bills, who hadn’t even bothered to let Harvey know he was going to be in town until the day-of_ – but he was still Harvey’s beloved father, and she couldn’t help wanting to make a good impression.

They took the train over and were just settling into a table in the corner of the bar when Harvey’s dad came on. She recognized him immediately – not so much because they looked alike (honestly, Harvey looked more like Henry Gerard in ethics than he did the man onstage), but because their gaits and mannerisms were almost identical – and she was pleased to realize he was a pretty good musician, the band moving comfortably from genre to genre. Harvey ordered cheap beer and mozzarella sticks and somehow managed to turn over his credit card without his eyes ever leaving the stage. As much as she really was enjoying the music, it firmly took second place compared to watching Harvey watch his father.

The band broke for half an hour after the first set, and Dana ran her fingers through her hair and put on a quick coat of lipstick before Harvey’s dad ambled over. The two men embraced eagerly and she smiled a little, trying to play the role of the perfect girlfriend while simultaneously berating herself for caring so damned much.

“And this must be your girlfriend,” Mr. Specter said, pleasantly, reaching out a hand for her to shake. “Scottie, right? It’s so nice to finally meet you. You’re even prettier than Harvey said.”

Dana smiled and shook his hand, pleasantly warm at the fact that Harvey’s dad already knew her name.

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Mr. Specter,” she said politely. “You were great up there, by the way. I’m so glad to get a chance to hear you play.”

“Oh, thanks, and please, call me Gordon,” he responded, his face lighting up exactly the way Harvey’s did during moments when he was unguardedly happy, and she was charmed.

“So, Harvey, you were in Boston this summer, right? How was that?” said Gordon, and the charm started to slip away a bit.

“Yeah, I was interning on the First Circuit – Scottie got me the job, actually, she was there the summer before and recommended me to one of the judges.”

“That’s great.” He paused for a moment. “What’s the First Circuit, exactly? Can you explain it?”

“Uh, yeah, um, the circuit courts are federal appeals courts, like if you wanna appeal a lawsuit that was decided under federal law, instead of state law. The First Circuit covers Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.”

“And Puerto Rico,” Dana chimed in, polishing off her beer and attempting to catch a waitress’s eye for another. Harvey chuckled.

“Right, and Puerto Rico.”

“Hey, that’s kind of a big deal, then, isn’t it?” Gordon said, brightening. “Look at you, Mr. Big Shot Lawyer. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Harvey, with a soft smile, and Gordon turned to Dana.

“What about you, Scottie, did you work at an appeals court this summer, too?”

She shook her head.

“No, I was a summer associate at a law firm called Cravath, Swaine & Moore. It’s in Manhattan.” She smiled. “I actually had dinner with Marcus a couple of times while I was down there.”

“Really! A summer associate, huh? What’s that?”

“It’s kind of like an intern, only they pay you like an employee,” Dana said, biting back her confusion at the fact that Harvey’s father knew nothing about the things that she’d spent the past two and a half years agonizing over with her own parents. “The goal is that it’s a good enough fit that they make you an offer at the end of the summer, and then you have a job after graduation.”

“Well, isn’t that neat. Are you going to be working at Cravath, Swaine & Moore when you graduate, then?”

Dana shook her head.

“No. They made me an offer, but I actually got a job clerking on the Supreme Court, so I’m going to do that instead. Eventually I’d like to work for a firm, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up.”

“Well, then really I should say, look at you two big shot lawyers! Good for you!” He knocked back the rest of his bourbon and gave them both a friendly smile.

“If you guys can stick around, I’ll see you after the show – if not, Scottie, nice to meet you, and Harvey – so good to see you again, son.” Gordon gave Harvey a quick hug and rushed backstage to get ready for the next set, and Dana started work on her next beer. Harvey scooted his chair closer to hers, so that he could drape his arm around her back as they watched the band get back onstage.

“He seems nice,” she said, turning to talk in Harvey’s ear and catching his earlobe between her lips as she did. He smiled and nodded.

“He is,” he agreed, pulling her a little bit closer. “I wish I got to see him more often.”

She snuggled into his side and said nothing, relaxing instead and enjoying the music as the band turned towards a slower, lazier style as the night wore on. It was slightly awkward, but it was a bit of a turn-on, she realized, and she surreptitiously placed a couple of soft kisses on Harvey’s neck, already looking forward to the tired, slightly drunken sex they’d be having later that night. He hummed a little and gave her waist a squeeze, but apparently he was determined to stay until the end.

The show ended around midnight, and Dana settled the tab while Harvey was in the bathroom – the Marcus event was too recent for her to be entirely comfortable letting Harvey pick up the bill – and waited for Gordon to come around.

“I’m so glad you came, Harvey,” he said, greeting them both again. “It’s really been too long.”

“I know,” Harvey said eagerly. “How long are you in town for? You wanna come over to my place, maybe have another drink…stay for Thanksgiving?”

Gordon offered a sad smile and shook his head.

“Sorry, son, I can’t; we’re heading out in about an hour. Hey, when’s your graduation?”

“June eighth,” Dana said promptly, fairly sure Harvey didn’t know off the top of his head. Gordon nodded a little.

“I’ll put it in the calendar, try to make it out here. You’ve done so well,” he said, giving his son a hug.

“Thanks, Dad,” Harvey said, only slightly wistful, as he hugged him back.

“See you soon,” Gordon replied, cheerfully, as he pulled away. “Scottie, again, so nice to meet you. Happy Thanksgiving!”

As they parted ways Harvey kept smiling, and Dana bit back the urge to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually sympathetic to Gordon Specter, to a point, but from the flashbacks it's pretty clear he wasn't the most dependable father, especially when Harvey was younger - maybe he got his act together eventually, but I always pictured Harvey as having a bit of a cat's-in-the-cradle relationship with his dad.


	4. a part of me keeps holding on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I told Rebecca Carlin you were gay."  
> "She slept with me anyway."  
> "Once."  
> "Yeah...why did she only sleep with me once?"  
> "Because I also told her you had crabs."
> 
> April 1998.

“I mean, yeah, he’s kind of a dick, but he’s _so_ hot…”

Ordinarily, Dana would have walked away – Rebecca Carlin’s description matched at least half the men at HLS, at least in her own experience – but this time…

“Sounds like good gossip,” she said, cutting in with a winning smile. “What terrible thing are you about to do, and what are his measurements?”

Rebecca laughed a little, conspiratorially.

“Harvey Specter,” she said, rolling her eyes, and Dana’s heart sank just a little. “He was hitting on me pretty hard last night, and I don’t know…he’s _definitely_ awful, but that body…”

“He’s a brick house,” Dana agreed, forcing herself to smile. It wasn’t as if she owned Harvey, after all. They’d had sex a couple of times, but they weren’t a couple. He could sleep with whomever he wanted – and, honestly, after a couple rounds with a petite brunette, Rebecca’s blonde hair, mile-long legs, and formidable rack probably _were_ what he wanted. What any red-blooded young man wanted.

“Yeah, exactly,” the woman said eagerly. “I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on that ass, you know?”

“You can have the ass; I want his cock,” interjected Rebecca’s friend – Dana was pretty sure her name was Amanda, but she was far enough down in class rank that she hadn’t paid her much attention yet.

“Don’t be crude,” Rebecca said primly, before smirking. “His cock was implied.” They all giggled a little at that, and Dana bit back the memory that was suddenly flooding her brain: Harvey, naked on her bed, legs spread and panting as she went to town on his cock. _He’s not my boyfriend. He’s_ not _my boyfriend._

“I don’t know, though, does he even like girls?” she heard herself say. Both the other women turned to her, a little shocked.

“I mean, _he_ was hitting on _me_ ,” Rebecca pointed out, reasonably, and Dana nodded.

“Yeah, and if I were a closeted gay guy, I’d hit on hot blondes, too,” she shot back. “Look, I don’t know for sure, but I’ve definitely heard rumors.”

“I guess that _would_ explain his hair,” said Amanda, thoughtfully, and Dana decided then and there that, low GPA or not, this girl was a keeper.

“Well, now I have to do it,” Rebecca declared. “Anthropology, and all.” She grinned. “And by, ‘all,’ I mean his ass.”

“Just make sure to use protection,” Dana said lightly, which was _good, sensible_ advice, no matter what Harvey’s orientation. Rebecca raised her eyebrows slightly, but Dana just offered her an innocent smile. She checked her watch absently after a bit of a charged moment, and winced a little.

“Ugh. Torts. Shoot me now, right?”

“Oh, save it, Scottie, you know you love it,” Rebecca replied good-naturedly. “Just like you secretly love contracts, and property, and civ pro, and con law, and all the other boring 1L classes.”

“You love it, too,” Dana teased back. “I mean, come on, can we stop pretending we don’t all go to Harvard?”

“Even better – congratulations, Dana Scott, you are a nerd amongst nerds.”

She had to laugh a little, because she knew it was true, but – 

“Later, nerds,” she said, easily, walking off to class.

Luckily she’d built enough of a reputation for knowing the answers to ensure that professors employing the Socratic method almost never called on her, because her mind was definitely wandering.

They’d never _said_ they were exclusive. Hell, they’d never even _implied_ it. And it wasn’t as if they never went out in public together, but had they really even been on a date? Does it count as a date if you’re both just hungry post-sex? 

Logically, Dana knew she had no right to be upset. And yet…somehow, this _dickhead_ who’d spent months trying to get into her pants, whom she’d spent _months_ rejecting…had gotten under her skin, and the idea of some other woman giving him pleasure made her want to retch. This was _not_ what she’d signed up for. She’d wanted casual sex with a good-looking guy clearly anxious to show her a good time and not so stupid she’d get bored of him in a week. And yeah, she’d enjoyed bickering with Harvey Specter enough that she thought their chemistry would carry over, but she hadn’t expected…

She hadn’t expected to _like_ him so much. For her stomach to do flips and her cheeks to heat up when she saw him. To lie in bed at night turning over in her mind all of the things he’d said, trying to come up with supporting arguments on the subjects where they’d disagreed and to plan the pert things she’d say to make him laugh the next time she saw him. To _think_ about him so much – and when had that happened, exactly? When had she started to spend so much of her limited free time thinking about Harvey?

Enough. She was not on board for this. Rebecca Carlin could _have_ him. Honestly, Dana didn’t really need the distraction.

\--

When Rebecca pulled her aside outside of criminal law and triumphantly reported that Harvey Specter was definitely _not_ gay, Dana smiled and told herself it was genuine.

“Well, good for you,” she said, keeping her voice down. “How was he?” Rebecca shrugged.

“Eh. Fine. I’d do it again, but it’s no great loss if we don’t.” She shook her head a little. “Still into that ass, though. Definitely as good as it looks.”

“There are worse ways to spend an evening,” Dana said lightly. “Just be careful, right?”

“Yeah, you said that before, but I don’t know what you’re getting at,” Rebecca answered swiftly. “I’m not an idiot; I’m on the pill, not to mention anyone who’s as smooth a talker as him, I’m gonna use a condom. What’s going on?”

Dana sighed.

“Look, I promised her I wouldn’t say anything, but the woman who told me Harvey’s gay – which, obviously, she was wrong – also told me he has crabs.” She made a bit of a face, as she neglected to inform the other woman that _she_ was her own informant and that she was definitely lying.

“Ew,” Rebecca replied, screwing up her face in a frown. “So gross.”

“Yeah, well…I mean, she could be wrong about that, too, but hey. Maybe don’t skip your next pelvic, you know?”

“More like I’m scheduling a pelvic _tomorrow_. Ugh. He was _not_ good enough for that.”

Dana forced down the guilt as they walked into the classroom and took their seats. She’d always had _great_ sex with Harvey. Clearly he wasn’t performing up to his capabilities with Rebecca. Really, she was doing her a favor – the girl deserved better!

The fact that Harvey called that weekend and asked her out – not to bed, but to dinner – was just an unintentional added bonus.


	5. it made us restless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I may not have been awake during our M&A clinic..."  
> "...except for when you were copying my notes..."  
> "Which was no walk in the park; you write like a monkey."
> 
> January 1999.

It was difficult enough to cram an entire breakfast sandwich into her mouth, chew, and swallow it without choking; it was flatly impossible to do it in a graceful way, and her plastic to-go mug was dangerously close to spilling hot coffee down the front of her outfit, but Dana managed to slide into her seat in an _almost_ dignified manner, which, as she assessed the room, was more than most of the class could say. But, then, it was seven-thirty in the morning on the first Saturday after Christmas break, and given those constraints she was doing pretty well. She pulled a notebook and a fresh pen out of her bag, took a delicious sip of hot coffee, and slowly let herself relax.

“Good morning, students, and welcome to mergers and acquisitions. This clinic, as you know, is in addition to some of the more regular coursework on corporate transactions, and I’m delighted that over the next four weekends we will be able to bring you some of the finest and most qualified minds in the field, starting today with the legendary Martin Lipton.”

Dana joined vaguely in the clapping but was quickly distracted, her eyes widening as she saw Harvey lurking near the doorway of the classroom, carefully waiting for a moment when no one else was watching him before darting over and settling into the seat at Dana’s left. He looked like shit, and she was caught between a wide variety of emotions: Pride, that she might not look great but she at least she’d combed her hair; compassion, because he clearly hadn’t slept and wasn’t feeling well; guilt, because she was the one who’d kept him up late the night before, drinking and…other things; and…well, there you go, she’d come around back to pride. She smirked a little to herself before subtly pushing her coffee towards him as she _felt_ him next to her, leaning back in his chair and trying to get ahold of himself. He could have it; the main point of coffee was the first few sips, and she knew once Lipton really got going she’d be awake on pure adrenaline.

Through her peripheral vision she could see Harvey taking a grateful sip, and she felt another jolt of compassion for him, followed quickly by a funny, mushy feeling that came a bit too often these days, a feeling that said she more than _loved_ him. She’d never been a particularly domestic person, and she’d always valued her freedom, but Harvey’s unshaven face, bloodshot eyes, and obvious hangover were overwhelming her with the desire to _take care_ of him.

And then – just as Dana was teetering on dangerously mushy, and Lipton was telling stories about Carl Ichan, she heard the unmistakable sound of Harvey snoring, followed quickly by the heavy thump of his head against her shoulder. She bit back a gasp and surreptitiously slipped her free hand under the table, digging her nails into his thigh until she felt his head jolt back up and saw him start writing again.

This was not off to a good start.

Lipton wound things up after about an hour and a half to give everyone a break, and Harvey leaned into her – his lips brushing her ear with every word, and it was a little more intimate than she would have preferred – to tell her he was going to splash some water on his face. She nodded, briefly, willing her cheeks not to turn red, and he stumbled to his feet and left the room. Ordinarily she would have introduced herself to the _living legend_ having a glass of water just a few feet away from her, but as things stood she half-wanted to disappear from mortification. Instead she took off for the restroom herself, idly wondering as she washed her hands if maybe she should be splashing water on her own face as well, but she could do this. And, honestly, she didn’t look terrible. Maybe she should really be thanking Harvey for bottoming out the curve.

When she got back to the classroom he was there already, her notebook spread out in front of him so that he could copy every word she’d written down.

“God, Scottie, don’t they teach _penmanship_ at whatever fancy prep school you went to?” he whispered as she took her seat, and Dana rolled her eyes. “What word is that even supposed to be? ‘Selllmell’?”

She glanced over to where he was gesturing and frowned.

“It’s _settlement_ , Harvey; use some context clues.”

“Okay, that does _not_ say settlement.”

“Sure it does. S-E-T-T-L-E-M-E-N-T.”

“You’re supposed to _cross_ your Ts, Scottie, and again, didn’t they teach you that in school? Hell, didn’t they teach you that in first grade?”

“I can’t _believe_ I’m taking this from a man who just slept through lecture and is _counting_ on me to do him a favor,” she said, rolling her eyes once more. “Now shut up, Lipton’s getting ready to talk again.”

She left her notebook open, though, rather than folding it in half, because she knew Harvey wasn’t done yet, and, really, she was entirely too accommodating.

The talk went on for another hour and a half, and although Harvey mostly managed to avoid sleeping _on_ her – or snoring audibly – Dana was reasonably certain he hadn’t caught much. God, he was such a shit sometimes, but these days she even said _that_ with a fond smile. There was no getting around it; Harvey Specter had wormed his way into her heart and was clearly there to stay.

He caught up with her after they’d left the building and filtered out into the quad, the cold air contrasting with the bright sunshine in the perfect winter paradox, and she let him sling an arm around her waist as they walked together.

“Hey, how sold are you on Cravath?” he asked suddenly. Dana frowned.

“Pretty sold, why?”

“‘Cause if you wanted to work at Wachtell Lipton this summer I’m pretty sure you could make it happen,” he answered. She stopped walking and turned to Harvey, brow furrowed in disbelief.

“And you’re basing this on…?”

“Caught up with him in the men’s room, apologized for the sleeping, told him I was sick. All he wanted to know was who was the indulgent woman letting me sleep on her shoulder while still taking faster notes than anyone else in the room, so I told him how great you are.”

Dana laughed in surprise before rising to her tiptoes to kiss him pertly on the cheek.

“This, Harvey…this is why I keep you around. Now come on. Let’s get lunch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Martin Lipton is a real person, an NYU Law professor, and one of the founding members of Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz. I've never met him and know nothing about his personality, but on the off chance an 85-year-old corporate lawyer is reading Suits fanfiction, I hope he will accept my fictitious references as a compliment because he's the most famous and successful M&A lawyer I could think of. Also, he could probably buy my entire net worth for less than WLRK pays a first-year associate, so I'd be worthless to sue.
> 
> And I realize this isn't really how a clinic would go, but I was kind of at a loss for a) how you could actually do a mergers and acquisitions clinic and b) how Harvey could sleep through one.


	6. you're like a dream come true

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas 1998.

“You’re still welcome to come home with me, you know,” Dana told her boyfriend, quite seriously, as she hooked her arms around his neck and his hands, automatically, came to rest on her waist. “My parents would be happy to have you; they love it when the house is full at Christmastime.” She grinned. “And I’m old enough now that you’d actually be allowed to stay in my room with me.”

“I appreciate that, but I need to see my brother,” Harvey answered lightly. “It’s been awhile, and we’re family.”

Dana nodded a little, biting her tongue against pointing out that Marcus still lived with their mother, which meant that Harvey would be spending Christmas alone so as not to have anything to do with her.

“I know,” she said, instead. “I’m just going to miss you.”

His arms tightened around her, pulling her against his body, and he smiled affectionately down at her.

“I’m gonna miss you, too, Scottie. Although I can’t say I’d like to meet your parents for the first time while sleeping in their only daughter’s bedroom, in their house.”

Dana laughed a little and gave him a quick kiss.

“Oh, come on, Harvey, they’re not like that. They do want to meet you, but…they know I’m an adult. They just want to keep up with what’s going on in my life.”

“If I had a daughter like you, she’d be locked up in a tower until she turned thirty. Keep her away from guys like me.”

“Well, lucky for you, my parents weren’t born in the seventeenth century.” She smiled and leaned in to kiss him again, this time on his neck. He sighed a little as her lips moved gently down his collarbone, then over his throat to fasten right below his Adam’s apple.

“Mmmm…Scottie…?” he mumbled.

“Yes?” she answered, barely taking a moment to break away from the hickey she was working on.

“What are you doing?”

“You know what I’m doing,” she said, chuckling softly and letting her hands drift down his back, landing firmly on his butt and bringing him closer. His hips shifted a little, seeking friction, and she sucked harder on his neck.

“’Til she turned thirty, I swear,” he groaned, and Dana laughed again, tugging at the hem of his T-shirt until he got the message and pulled it over his head. Her sweater joined it on the floor and then they were pressed up against each other again, and it was thrilling, his skin on hers, the warmth of his body and the gentle thrumming of his heart reminding her that he was real, that he was _alive_ , in her arms.

“I am _really_ going to miss you,” she whispered, carefully dropping to her knees and opening his jeans. Harvey inhaled sharply and she looked up at him with a mischievous grin before lowering her mouth to his half-hard dick and bathing it slowly with her tongue. Too slowly – she was teasing and she knew it – but his low moan cheered her on and she kept at it, steadily, until he was fully erect and she could slide him all the way into her mouth.

“Scottie,” he panted, and she could feel the tension in his body as he resisted the instinct to thrust. She smiled as best she could and sucked, hard, chuckling softly in the back of her throat when he groaned, and that only got him going again.

“Fuck, baby, that feels so good,” he told her, as if the tight grip of his hands on her shoulders weren’t enough evidence. She kept at it, stroking his hip with one hand as she cupped his balls with the other, until she knew he was on the brink. He was looking down at her and she looked up, her eyes warm, and nodded, letting him gently guide her head as he came with a grateful moan.

She stood up when she was sure he was finished and stepped into his embrace, tight and comforting and exactly what she wanted until his legs got too shaky and they had to move over to the bed. They sat, at first, and then Harvey slowly reclined until they were lying next to each other and Dana was firmly enclosed in his arms.

“If that was you trying to convince me to come home with you for Christmas…” he started, and they both laughed.

“Nah, that was me trying to convince you not to fall in love with any other girl in New York,” she said, without thinking, her heart almost stopping when she heard what she’d said.

Because she knew perfectly well that she loved him, but she could never quite find the words. And he…he had to love her, too; the way he looked at her sometimes when she really got going, the way he held her, the way he could shut the world out and treat her like the only person who mattered, the only thing that was real. And yet…

“I promise, Scottie,” he whispered, bending to press his lips against her shoulder. “You’re the only girl I love.”

She exhaled shakily and took a moment – the feel of his skin under her hands, his chest rising and falling with every breath, the smell of him and the taste.

“I love you, too,” she said softly, and his face lit up in a way that made her glad she wasn’t currently trying to stand up before he caught her mouth with a kiss.


	7. you look like a movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not goodbye - yet.
> 
> May 1999.

“So what’s the deal with this summer?” Dana asked, trying to be casual, as she made her way over to the table where Harvey had just stood up, waiting for her. He shrugged.

“You’re in New York; I’m in Boston,” he said, as if it were obvious. “I mean, you could take the train a couple weekends, but…”

“But we’re going to be apart,” she said quietly, sitting down and absently reaching for her water. “What does…I guess…”

“Scottie…” he said slowly, “I’m not going to sleep with anyone else.”

“That’s not what I was – ” she began, reflexively.

“Yes, it was,” Harvey volleyed back, a bit of his usual cockiness slipping into his voice.

“How do you know that?”

“Because I was about to ask you the same thing,” he admitted.

“Oh.” Dana looked down at the empty bread plate in front of her, feeling simultaneously a little bit shy and furious with herself for being shy.

“I don’t want you to – Scottie, I want you to wait for me,” he said, a little bit awkwardly. She nodded and bit her lip before finally looking back up into his face. His eyes were soft, and, really, this shouldn’t have been such a difficult conversation.

“All right, then…we’re exclusive. Still,” she said, taking another sip of water and offering Harvey a tiny smile.

“We’re exclusive,” he agreed, placing his hand over hers and giving it a quick squeeze. They sat there, grinning slightly at each other, until a waitress came over to take their orders.

“Oh, there’s something else I’d like,” Harvey said, once the waitress had left.

“Hmm?” Dana asked, raising her eyebrows. “Harvey, I don’t care what Ken Starr says about it, I’m not sure I feel comfortable talking about that over the phone.”

“No, no, that’s not…I want you to check in on Marcus,” he explained. “It’s the first summer I’m not going to be in New York, and I’m a little worried about him. I wanna know that there’s someone I trust looking out for him.”

She nodded, melting a little at the serious look on his face as he talked about his younger brother.

“Give me his number,” she said softly. “Wait – Harvey, he knows who I am, right?”

Harvey chuckled a little and nodded.

“Yeah, he knows who you are, but I’ll make sure to tell him to expect to hear from you. I didn’t wanna mention you’d be in New York until I knew you’d be okay with it.”

“He’s your brother,” she said, as if it were a no-brainer. “I know how much he means to you. Of _course_ I’ll have his back.”

“You’re my girlfriend; of _course_ I wasn’t going to cheat on you,” he retorted, and she sighed.

“Okay, you’re right; it’s better to ask,” she agreed, smiling wryly at him. “So…what do you want me to do, exactly?”

Harvey shrugged a little.

“Just, I don’t know, meet up with him every so often. Coffee…drinks…” He shook his head. “Come to that, ever since he moved out of Mom’s place I’ve been a little worried about him taking care of himself, so if you could make sure he gets a square meal every so often, that would be great.”

“This, coming from the man who thinks grilled cheese sandwiches are a square meal,” Dana teased. Harvey smiled slightly but looked serious pretty quickly.

“I have Jessica Pearson looking out for me,” he pointed out. “Marcus…he doesn’t have anyone.”

Dana knew perfectly well that Harvey’s mother and stepfather were more than capable of being there for Marcus, but she also knew perfectly well that Harvey didn’t want to hear it, so she just nodded a little.

“Well, he has me,” she said firmly. “I’m not entirely sure what the summer schedule’s going to be like, but I will absolutely make time for your brother. I promise.”

“Thank you, Scottie,” he said, quite seriously, and she nodded, her heart aching a little as she held his gaze.

The promises out of the way, they made it through dinner talking about less important things, jokes and gossip and daydreams that Dana had all but forgotten by the time Harvey was walking her to her apartment – a rarity, since when they ended their evenings together it generally involved her staying over at his place, to the point where once or twice she’d half-wondered why they didn’t just move in together. Then, of course, she’d remind herself not to get too caught up in it – that she loved him and he loved her but they were young and ambitious and they’d made no promises and she shouldn’t get too attached…which, naturally, usually led to her dragging him to bed and riding him until neither of them could think.

So there was something almost sweet, almost chaste, about standing outside her apartment, Harvey’s tall body towering over her, arm braced against the doorframe, as he looked down with a fond smile.

“You’ll call this summer?” she said, her voice quavering slightly.

“I promise,” he said softly.

“I’m going to miss you.”

“Hey…we’ll see each other soon, okay? You kick ass and take names down there.”

She grinned and nodded.

“And you’d better not embarrass me with anyone up here,” she teased, and Harvey bent to kiss her.

“You want to stay over?” she asked, quietly, when he’d pulled away. He hesitated, and she could see the indecision in his face.

“I do, but…”

“I still have packing to do,” she supplied. “Not to mention I have to leave pretty early in the morning.”

And she knew perfectly well how much Harvey hated going to bed with someone and waking up alone.

“Well, I’ll make sure to visit,” she said, abruptly. “And hey…it’s not really that long.”

“No,” he agreed. “We’ll see each other soon.” He bent again, and kissed her on the cheek.

“Sleep well, Scottie,” he said softly, as he turned to walk away.

“Thanks. You, too,” she answered, as she watched him leave.


	8. nobody told me that you'd be here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> October 1997.

“I see the Great and Powerful Dana Scott only took _one_ page of notes all class, what’s with that?”

Dana looked up from her seat to see Harvey Specter towering over her, and rolled her eyes.

“It’s civil procedure, Harvey. You buy a copy of the 1997 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and you _read_ them, you’re halfway there.”

“I agree! But, then again, I agree in just about every other course, and that hasn’t stopped you from taking pages and pages of long, extensive notes each time.” He smirked. “Your wrist must be exhausted.”

“Well, you know, I was never a teenaged boy; I thought maybe I should try to learn empathy,” she said crisply, putting her books away and rising to her feet. He still towered over her, and it was a little unnerving, but he was smiling genuinely, and that was kind of nice.

“There are better ways,” he replied, only slightly suggestively, and Dana rolled her eyes.

“Honestly, Harvey, the truth is I remember things better if I write them down. Taking notes during lecture takes me no extra time – I’m already in class; it’s a sunk cost – but it saves me hours of studying when it’s time for exams.”

He nodded a bit.

“That’s actually fair,” he said, reaching for her bag.

“What are you doing?” she asked, frowning.

“What? I’m offering to carry your books,” Harvey answered, giving her an exaggeratedly hurt expression.

“You never offered; you just took them,” she pointed out.

“I was hoping you’d have coffee with me,” he told her, smoothly. Dana rolled her eyes again.

“I told you, I don’t want to go on a date with you,” she said, and he chuckled.

“I wasn’t asking you on a date. Hell, I’ll even make you pay for your own coffee. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“And why’s that?” she asked, suspicious, but she let him take her bag.

“Because everyone here is _boring_. You’re not,” he answered.

“Fine,” she agreed, finally. “But just so we’re clear, I’m not going to sleep with you.”

“I definitely heard you say that,” Harvey said solemnly, and Dana didn’t have to be nearly as smart or as thorough as she was to recognize that he hadn’t actually said he believed her.

\--

“So you’re from New York,” she said, casually, as she sat down with her vanilla latte. Harvey nodded a little, settling in across from her.

“Born and raised,” he agreed. “You?”

“Connecticut,” she told him, taking the lid off her latte so that she could lick up the foam. She could feel his eyes on her tongue and smirked inwardly. “But I haven’t been home much recently; I went to Chicago for undergrad, and it’s a lot more fun than Fairfield.”

“Oh, come on, you guys’ve got GE,” Harvey said, smirking, as he took a sip of his own drink. Dana snorted, but then grinned a little.

“Where did you go to college?” she asked, curious now.

“NYU, but I graduated a few years back,” he answered. “I, uh, I actually used to work at Gordon Schmidt & Van Dyke.”

“Oh, you were a paralegal. No wonder you find civ pro boring,” she smiled.

“No, I worked in the mail room,” he admitted, looking almost embarrassed for a moment before turning the arrogance back on. “I find civ pro boring ‘cause it’s boring.”

“You seem to find a lot of things boring,” Dana noted, raising her eyebrows. She was a little curious what a guy as clearly smart and confident as this was doing working in the mailroom of a major law firm, but she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to go down that path just yet.

“I have high standards,” he said, smugly, and Dana raised her eyebrows again.

“And yet you’re wearing that shirt.”

There wasn’t really anything wrong with his shirt, but giving this guy shit was quickly becoming one of Dana’s favorite Harvard hobbies.

“Hey, your clothes aren’t so great, either,” he replied, somewhat weakly.

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah…I mean, they’re fine and all, but they’d look a _lot_ better on my bedroom floor.”

Dana groaned.

“Oh my God, get an original line.”

“On my living room floor?”

“Stop, just stop,” she said, trying to hold back her giggles.

“Oh, come on, they’d go perfectly with my décor,” he teased, and maybe – maybe? – his charm wasn’t _entirely_ fake.

“I mean, putting aside the fact that I’m wearing jeans and a black top, which would go with _any_ décor…” she said, smiling a little, and Harvey latched right on, his own smile growing wider.

“See, I told you,” he pointed out, and she laughed again.

“So, Harvey Specter,” she said. “Yikes, by the way. That must’ve been a mouthful when you were a kid.”

“Harvey Reginald Specter, in fact,” he answered ruefully, and Dana laughed.

“What made you decide to come here?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“Jessica Pearson,” he said, immediately and seriously.

“Girlfriend?” she asked, and he laughed.

“I wish. She’s hot. But no, she’s a partner at Gordon Schmidt & Van Dyke, also a Harvard Law alumna. She, uh…she gave me a good kick in the pants when I needed it.”

“That sounds like a full-time job,” Dana said dryly. He chuckled a little.

“It probably is. What about you? Why law school? Why Harvard?”

She shrugged.

“I can’t remember not wanting to go to law school, honestly,” she said. “Even when I was a kid, I was always the one who knew all the rules.”

“Teacher’s pet,” he said, rolling his eyes as if he had her all figured out, and for some reason she didn’t want to let that stand.

“No, I knew all the rules because _when_ you know all the rules, you also know all the loopholes.” She grinned, and tried not to care that he looked impressed.

“And Harvard?”

“Well, if I was going to go to law school, I was going to do it _right_. And Yale’s a little too close to my parents’.”

“Let me guess, a difficult relationship?”

“No,” she said, decisively. “I get along with my parents fine. I just…I’ve always taken care of things for myself. And between my parents, and my brother…it’s important for me to stand on my own.”

Harvey nodded, a little, and Dana got the sudden feeling that he was looking at her in a manner she didn’t quite expect, like – well, like a person, instead of like a pretty girl. Once again, she tried not to care how much she enjoyed having this man look at her that way.

“Finished my coffee,” she said, finally, after a silence that left her more than a little unnerved.

“Me, too,” Harvey said, holding up his cup.

“I should probably get going,” she continued, rising from her seat and tucking her chair back in. He stood as well, and looked at her for a moment.

“Where are you headed?” he asked.

“Library,” she said wryly.

“C’mon, I’ll walk you,” he said, easily, picking up her bag once more, and maybe…maybe he wasn’t so bad.


	9. I've been by myself all night long

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You know that paper you had to re-do because Professor Gunn said he never got it?"  
> "Mmhmm..."  
> "He never got it."
> 
> November 1998.

Ten o’clock on a Friday night and here she was, surrounded by books and parked in front of her computer. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she had procrastinated and procrastinated and done it to herself – hell, it wouldn’t even have been so bad if she were actually writing the paper from scratch. That could’ve been interesting, or at least as interesting as twenty pages on federal income tax could be, but she _wasn’t_ writing a paper from scratch; she was trying to recreate a paper that fucking Gunn had _lost_ and was trying to say that she hadn’t turned in. And, okay, maybe it was a little bit her fault – she should’ve saved the damned thing to her hard drive – but generations of law students had written their papers on typewriters (or _by hand_ ) and turned them in and everyone had survived, and seriously, _fuck_ Gunn.

Well, that wasn’t entirely fair. Yes, it was totally his fault that he’d lost her paper, but Dana knew perfectly well that most other professors just would have failed most other students, whereas she was getting a second chance, albeit with a shortened time frame. Still, it was a miserable way to spend a Friday night, made worse by the fact that _Harvey_ had gone out to dinner with some friends and was probably having a grand old time while she sat alone with a pot of coffee.

And, again, to be fair, she had _told_ him to go out, when he offered to stay and keep her company. It wasn’t as if he could’ve been much help; his memory wasn’t bad, but he’d only read her paper once, after all. If anything he would’ve been a distraction, which, now that she thought about it, was probably his main purpose in offering. Sneaky little shit knew his chances of getting laid went way up when homework was her alternative.

Luckily – the one piece of good luck Dana had had on this whole stupid project – she was methodical about keeping track of her citations, and there were Post-Its all over the books she’d marked and even some Web sites saved to her browser. And, really, she’d only written the thing a week ago. She remembered her argument. So, really, on the whole, she’d been fortunate: She hadn’t failed, and she hadn’t had to ransack the library and every online database to try to find her citations. Things were fine. No, they were _good_. She could make this work.

In the end, it hadn’t even been as bad as she’d expected, and it wasn’t too long after midnight that she was staring at, if not a perfect recreation of her paper, a passable model. She could polish it off tomorrow morning before _saving_ it and running it to the department for a time stamp.

Just as she was weighing the benefits of taking a shower before bed against _going to sleep right now_ , a knock came at the door. She frowned a little but went to answer it.

“Harvey,” she said, surprised. He smelled strongly of beer and faintly of cigarettes, and he was looking at her as if she were everything he’d ever wanted.

Which, ordinarily, she was perfectly willing to accept, but ordinarily she wasn’t wearing sweats with her day-old hair pulled back. Ordinarily she didn’t have bags under her eyes and wasn’t over-jittery from too much coffee, too quickly.

“How’s the paper?” he asked, lisping slightly in the way that he did when he wasn’t quite sober anymore.

“It’s good,” she assured him. “I finished.”

“You did?” he said, his eyes widening a bit and his lips spreading into a smile.

“Yeah,” she told him, unable to keep from grinning back. “Gunn can _suck_ it, but I did.”

“Hey, don’t be too hard on him…” Harvey started, and Dana rolled her eyes.

“Oh, so you can trash every faculty member you meet, but when _I_ dare complain…” she said, opening her door wider. “Look, come inside if you wanna stay over – and based on the way you’re walking, you probably should…” she added, dryly, as he stumbled into the apartment.

“Scottie, I – ” he started, before stopping. She looked at him quizzically.

“You what?”

“I just…” he began again, faltering again. Dana sighed and shook her head a little.

“I’m going to grab a shower before bed,” she told him.

“Mind if I join you?” he said, finally spitting out a complete sentence.

“Kind of, actually. Harvey, you’re like half a foot taller than I am; you’ll block all the hot water.”

“Not if I don’t stand up.”

\--

She wasn’t quite sure which was more amazing, the way he went down on her or the way he managed not to drown as water poured into his face, but there was no denying Friday was fading into Saturday a lot better than Dana had planned. She was still a little breathless as they toweled off, though she managed to steady herself long enough to get out the blow dryer. Harvey was waiting for her in the bedroom when she finished, naked, and she followed his lead and didn’t bother with pajamas. He pulled her close immediately, making her chuckle a bit.

“Mmm, what’s gotten into you tonight?” she asked drowsily into his chest hair.

“Nothing,” he answered, after a long pause. “I’m glad you finished that paper.”

“Me too,” she agreed, and she would have probed further, really, but she was exhausted and satiated and the idea of falling asleep in Harvey’s arms was entirely too seductive.


	10. everybody here is watching you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting Scottie's parents.
> 
> February 1999.

“Holy _shit_ , Scottie, you look amazing,” Harvey blurted, and Dana laughed, doing a quick turn in her bright red slip dress to give him the full effect.

“Seriously, am I underdressed?” he asked, suddenly uncertain. Dana bit her lip, looking him up and down. He was wearing a ski jacket rather than an overcoat, but it _was_ winter in Boston…

“Are you wearing a suit?”

He shook his head.

“Black chinos and a dress shirt – you didn’t tell me where we were going; how snooty _are_ your parents?”

“They’re not _snooty_ , Harvey; they just…sometimes have expensive taste. And they didn’t tell me until twenty minutes ago where we were going, either.” She frowned, looking down at her dress. “I don’t know actually know the restaurant. Maybe _I_ should change.”

“No, you look great. I’ll be fine,” he assured her, shaking his head a little. “Never been expected to wear a suit to meet a girlfriend’s parents, though.”

“They’re not snooty,” she said again, “and they hated my last boyfriend, so you’ve already got that going for you.”

“What’d he do, wear white after Labor Day?”

“Harvey…”

“Scottie,” he said finally, sincerely. “You’re nervous, and it’s making me nervous. What’s wrong?”

“I just want them to like you,” she admitted, flushing. “I – you’re important to me, and they’re important to me, and I…I want you all to get along.”

“It’s dinner,” he reminded her. “It’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” she agreed. She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. “Um…oh, my parents have the same last name, so you can call my mom, ‘Mrs. Scott.’ She’s a forensic accountant. Dad works in biomedical engineering, more on the management end, though. They like New York sports teams,” she added, with a slightly winsome smile.

“Sounds good,” Harvey said, waiting while she found her coat and then opening the front door for her. “And don’t worry, I’ll try not to laugh at the fact that I’m meeting my girlfriend’s parents, and _she’s_ the nervous wreck.”

\--

They made it to the restaurant first, and Dana was relieved to look around and determine that Harvey _wasn’t_ underdressed. He had the looks and the personality to make it work, even if he had been, but no matter what she said to reassure him, her parents _could_ be a little bit…demanding…and she was terrified that things weren’t going to go smoothly.

“Dana?” came a woman’s voice, and Dana turned around eagerly to see her parents approaching. She rushed forward to give first her mom and then her dad a hug.

“So good to see you, sweetheart,” her father said, patting her a little on the back as he let her go.

“I missed you,” she said, unable to hide her smile. “You, too, Mom.”

“We missed you, too, honey,” her mother replied warmly before turning to Harvey, eyebrows raised a little bit in expectation.

“Mom, Dad, I’d like you to meet Harvey Specter,” Dana said gently, following her mother’s gaze. “Harvey…these are my parents, Richard Scott and Kathleen Scott.”

“A pleasure,” Harvey said smoothly, extending his hand first to her mother and then to her father.

“Not at all, the pleasure’s mine,” her father replied amiably. “So nice to finally meet the man who ran up my daughter’s phone bill over Christmas,” he added, cheekily, and Harvey flushed just a little, which Dana found endlessly endearing.

She couldn’t concentrate on the conversation; she could barely taste her food. It bothered her, because she didn’t see her parents that often and knew perfectly well that she was going to see them less and less often as the years went by – but it bothered her even more because she knew the cause.

Dana wanted her parents to like Harvey. It _was important_ that her parents like Harvey. Which was _normal_ – they’d been together, ish, for almost a year; she was _in love_ with him; they were _her parents_ – but it still made her stomach feel funny to realize how much she _cared_. How much it meant to her to see Dad laughing at a joke Harvey had told, or Mom giving him an approving smile. How much she liked the image of the three of them, sitting together. How easily she could imagine all of them up at the lake house together, Harvey a part of her family.

It was terrifying, because she wasn’t sure he was that kind of guy. Hell, until a couple months ago, she’d been positive she wasn’t that kind of girl. And yet suddenly here she was, mentally trying on his name even though she _definitely_ wasn’t _that_ kind of girl.

She was so lost in thought she jumped a little when she felt Harvey’s hand on her shoulder and looked up to see him standing, and it took her another moment to realize that he’d excused himself. He walked towards the bathrooms, and she watched him disappear before turning back to knowing looks on her parents’ faces.

“Dana,” her mother said, gently. “Why didn’t you _tell_ us?”

“Tell you what?” she replied, slightly defensively.

“How serious you are about him.”

“It isn’t serious,” she answered, even more defensively. “We’re just…together. For now, you know?”

“Honey, I’m your mother; I can tell these things. You’re in love with him, and he’s clearly in love with you.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re serious,” Dana insisted. “Look, Mom, yes, I love Harvey. But I don’t know where either of us is going to be in a couple of years, you know? Right now, we’re together, but we’re not making promises. It’s too soon. That’s too much.”

“All right,” her mother said, holding up her hands. “It’s your life.” She smiled. “He seems like a nice boy, though.”

“He is,” she said with a smile. “I…I’m really happy.”

“Good for you, sweetie. That’s all I want to hear.”

Harvey came back to the table shortly thereafter, and she was able to tune back in to the conversation over dessert, raving with her father over new developments in medical devices even as she inched a little closer to the man sitting next to her. It wasn’t perfect – she really _wasn’t_ sure what came next, not to mention it was plain as anything that Harvey was uncomfortable when Dad immediately handed the waiter his credit card – but once she’d said her goodbyes and turned back towards her boyfriend she had to admit quietly to herself that she was in deeper than she’d ever been before.


	11. everybody loves the things you do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's a classic maneuver. She made me think it was my idea."  
> "How do you know that?"  
> "Because I taught her how to do it."
> 
> May 1998.

“Scottie. Fancy meeting you here,” came the voice of Harvey Specter, leaning over her shoulder and angling his face just right that his breath hit her ear and made her shiver.

“It’s the closest coffee shop to the library the week journal submissions are due; you could meet our whole class here,” she said sarcastically, steadfastly deciding that cinnamon was _all_ that she would add to her coffee and turning around to face him. He was a little too close, and she stifled a gasp as he carefully walked around her and proceeded to dump sugar in his own cup.

“I could, but I didn’t. I met you.” He flashed a grin at her, and Dana smiled a little bit self-consciously and tucked her hair back. “How’s your note coming?”

“Oh, it’s fine,” she sighed, rolling her eyes a little. “I’m about ready to throw my bluebook at someone, but I’ll be all right. How ‘bout yours?”

He took a big gulp of coffee and shook his head.

“It’s coming; it’s coming,” he said, with more than a hint of defensiveness.

“Harvey…” she said slowly, raising her eyebrows and staring straight at him. He held her gaze for a moment before flinching.

“All right, fine, I barely started,” he admitted ruefully.

“Harvey.”

“Oh, come on, Scottie, it’s not a big deal. You can go one night without getting laid.”

She flinched at that. As if! – that wasn’t what she! –

Well, but it would have been nice.

“Amazingly, Harvey, I was actually worried about you, but I guess you don’t know what it’s like to care about anyone but yourself, so…”

“Seriously, I’m fine,” he said. “But I really can’t talk; I have to get back to work.” He turned away, and she was going to let him, but...

“Where are you working?” she asked, suddenly. Harvey flashed her an easy grin, but conceded.

“Second floor study carrels.”

“Right next to the action,” she said, chuckling. “All right. C’mon, I was up on the fourth floor but I’ll come down and keep you company.”

“That’s really not necessary, Scottie,” he said, a little bit indulgently.

“Sure it is. You’re gonna need someone to stand guard over your coffee.”

\--

If she were being completely honest with herself, Dana would have admitted that, really, she didn’t need to be there. Her note was well written, well argued, and perfectly cited, and “proofing” it over and over was doing nothing more than assuring her she was totally walking on to Law Review. She had it in the bag.

And, honestly, it was making her kind of horny.

She took a sidelong glance at Harvey, his brow furrowed as he stared at his computer. Occasionally he typed furiously, but more often he was frowning, flipping through references, or resignedly hitting the backspace key. Yeah, of course he cared about turning in a good submission and getting on a decent journal, but he was _clearly_ not having as good a night with his writing as he had when he was with her. She totally had this in the bag, too.

Carefully, Dana stood up, stretching her arms into the air and then rolling her shoulders before bending over, gracefully, to touch her toes. He tried to look away before she noticed him staring at her ass, but she caught him pretty easily and grinned.

“What?”

“Stretching, Scottie?” he asked, smirking at her, and she laughed.

“Oh, come on, like you don’t get sore hunched over a desk for hours.” She raised an eyebrow at him and nodded, satisfied, when he reflexively reached for his shoulder.

“Go ahead, Harvey,” she teased. “Do some library stretching; I promise to tell _everyone_.” It was his turn to laugh, though, and he stood up as well, reaching his arms up and mimicking her actions in an exaggerated fashion, until she had to bite her lip to keep from disturbing everyone else. When he stretched his shoulders, though, she heard him wince, and looked at him in alarm.

“You okay?” she asked, concerned, as he sat back down. He nodded.

“I was a pitcher in high school. Acts up sometimes,” he said, shrugging and then wincing again. Dana hesitated, even as he got back to work.

“Do you…want me to rub it for you?” she asked, a little bit uncomfortable at the suggestion but feeling vaguely responsible. He looked at her for a moment, considering.

“If you want,” he said, finally, as if he were trying hard to sound indifferent, so she came over to stand behind him, vaguely aware that she looked a bit silly but also aware that everyone had better things to do than to watch her give Harvey a light shoulder massage. Hell, _she_ had better things to do. Like…get him into bed, immediately, because feeling his body under her hands, skin warm through the thin cotton of his T-shirt was really doing her in.

“That feels nice,” he told her, with a bit of a sigh, and she smiled and leaned forward, her hair brushing over his shoulder as she breathed in his ear.

“You know what would feel better?”

He looked up at her with raised eyebrows and she grinned at him.

“Scottie, I’m not finished working,” he said. Dana just packed her things and kept grinning, until he slowly started to put his away as well.

\--

Half an hour later they were at Harvey’s apartment, and she had him flat on his back, naked and begging and exactly the way she wanted him. She was on top, grinding, not slowly but not as fast or as deep or as hard as he wanted it, if his frustrated groans were anything to go by. It felt so perfect she could hardly bring herself to care, but as she got closer and closer she couldn’t quite help speeding up, and she reached behind her to cup his balls the way she’d noticed he liked, not too firmly but just enough that he could feel the warmth and the pressure. He groaned even more at that, and she was _right there_ , if she stuck to her rhythm and didn’t give in and –

Her vision blurred for a moment, and her hearing, and everything that required any of her focus because all of it was on the heat pulsing through her body. She tossed her head back and moaned, loudly, before arching her back to change the angle and riding him eagerly. He was down for the count almost immediately, his eyes rolling back in his head, his breathing harsh and pleading, and when he came, finally, gripping at her thighs so hard she was sure she’d have marks, it felt deliciously like winning.

She let him linger until his heart slowed back down – after a slightly awkward but necessary conversation last month she’d stopped making him wear a condom, and she’d never admit it but she was probably even happier than Harvey was that he didn’t have to pull out right away anymore – and then carefully rolled off of him onto her back, enjoying the feeling of air on her slightly sticky skin.

“Mmm,” he said drowsily, “you should probably stay over; it’s getting late.”

Dana shook her head a little, even though there was nothing she wanted more than to do just that.

“Nah, I’ll be okay,” she assured him. “I know you need to work on your note.”

He chuckled at that and sat up, leaning over her with a smug grin on his face.

“Scottie, I finished my note last night. Turned it in this morning.”

Her eyes widened, and she swiped at him playfully.

“Seriously, Specter? Then what was all this?”

He shrugged, grinning a little more.

“See, here’s the thing. I know you’re done with your note, and I know it’s awesome, because it’s you. I _also_ know that you’re going to insist on nitpicking it until you absolutely have to submit it, because it’s you. Which means if I was gonna get _any_ action this week…”

“…you had to trick me into thinking it was my idea,” she finished, rolling her eyes a little. “God. You’re a manipulative son-of-a-bitch, you know that?”

“What I know is I got you to seduce me, come home with me, _and_ do all the work.”

Dana chuckled in spite of herself.

“What can I say? You got me.” She shook her head a little. “Don’t think I’m going to fall for this again.”

“Oh, I’ll come up with something else next time,” he said easily, lying back down and curling up against her body, and even though he was _insufferable_ , she was already kind of looking forward to, “next time.”


	12. we were sad of getting old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back for 3L.
> 
> August 1999.

“What happened to dinner, Scottie, I’m starving,” Harvey sighed, his words belied somewhat by the fact that he was clearly making no effort to get up and, in fact, his eyes were closed. Dana smirked a little, reached over him to turn on the lamp, and then swung her legs out of bed.

“I’ll order a pizza,” she said, padding over to the desk and reaching for Harvey’s phone. “You’re staying right there.”

“I’m nothing but your sex toy,” he complained, making her laugh as she settled into his desk chair and called for food.

“Cheaper and more convenient than a vibrator – yes, hello, I’d like to place an order for delivery...”

Harvey snickered as she ordered, but he stopped abruptly when she hung up the phone and started walking back over to the bed. They hadn’t wasted much time before they stumbled upstairs – in fact, Dana hadn’t even bothered bringing her bags to her own apartment – but now, even in the low light of Harvey’s bedside lamp, they could see each other fully. And she wasn’t one to toot her own horn, but she also wasn’t one for false humility, and she knew she looked pretty terrific even without the extra premium the male gaze gave to naked women coming to bed.

“He said half an hour,” she said, pulling back the sheets and pressing her body against his side, her hand reaching to play with his chest hair before drifting further down along the flat plane of his belly.

“Mmm…” His back arched involuntarily as her fingers danced their way towards his groin, and she smiled and kissed his shoulder.

“And you know that really means forty-five minutes…”

“Scottie, we just – _oh_ – ” He cut off with a moan when she carefully wrapped her hand around his dick, pulsing gently and starting to coax an erection out of him.

“I know we, ‘just,’ but I was thinking we could _just_ …” she began, stretching out her fingers to tease his balls even as she kept working his cock. Harvey’s head fell back and his lips parted, his heart and his breathing speeding up as he got hard enough for her to stroke. He moaned when she did, arching his back again to drive himself harder into her hand, and she leaned over to give him a dirty kiss on the mouth. They made out leisurely for a couple of minutes before he was reaching for her hips, pulling her on top of him, and they were both sighing gratefully when he was inside her again, and Dana would never say anything quite so sentimental to his face, but this – alone in the dark with Harvey, riding him to climax and then giggling with pure joy as he flipped her over on the bed and chased his own orgasm, the smell of a New England autumn in the air outside – this was the closest she’d ever come to being perfectly happy.

He moved to roll off her after he’d come, but she tightened her arms around him instead, enjoying the heavy press of his body into hers and the warmth of his breath on her neck.

“I missed you,” she said softly, as she ran her fingers up and down his back, and he made a contented sound before lifting his head to look at her.

“I noticed,” he said, grinning. She crinkled her nose at him and he leaned in to kiss her.

“I missed you, too, Scottie. Without you, Boston’s true, terrible colors show through.”

She laughed affectionately and wound her fingers in his damp hair.

“Well, New York does just fine without you, although I have to admit – it would’ve been more fun with you there.”

“I don’t just improve a room; I improve a whole city.”

“Shut up, Specter.”

“Use your nails on me, Scott.”

She laughed again and obediently scratched her fingernails against his scalp and then back down his back as he almost purred with pleasure.

The sound of the buzzer interrupted their post-coital silliness, and Dana sighed as she carefully got out from under him, plucking her panties up from the floor and grabbing the dress shirt hanging on the back of Harvey’s bedroom door as she headed out to let the delivery guy in.

“You’re not gonna put on pants?” Harvey called from the bed.

“Too much effort,” she called back, reaching for her wallet. “Besides, the man delivers pizza for a living, might as well give him a thrill.”

She paid for the pizza and came back into the bedroom, taking Harvey’s shirt off as she sat down on the bed, back against the headboard, pizza box on her lap. Harvey grinned and sat up next to her.

“I have a kitchen table, you know,” he said, reaching for a slice. Dana shrugged and stuck her tongue out.

“This is easier,” she answered. “Besides, we’re still students for one more year. Save the table for next year, when you’re a fancy real lawyer at Gordon Schmidt.” She took a bite of her pizza, then, and almost didn’t notice when Harvey’s face fell.

“What?” she asked, as soon as she’d had a chance to swallow her food.

“Jessica doesn’t want me back,” he said heavily, hurt creeping into his voice, and Dana put her slice down in surprise.

“Are you kidding? Harvey, didn’t you say she’s the one who convinced you to come to law school? That she’s paying the bill, for God’s sake? How could she not want you back?”

“Well, right away,” he amended, still frowning. “She wants me to take a job at the New York County D.A.’s office and work there a couple years first.”

“That’s Cameron Dennis’s office, isn’t it?” Dana asked thoughtfully as she processed the information.

“Yeah.”

“I mean…as far as state prosecutors go, he’s a legend,” she said simply. “If you wanted criminal experience…”

“Gordon Schmidt & Van Dyke does some criminal practice,” he defended, and Dana rolled her eyes.

“Sure, white-collar criminal practice before the bars of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and I’m sure the occasional mandatory pro bono wife beater. Not quite the same.”

“Exactly, and that’s what I _want_ to do. But Jessica thinks…ugh. I don’t know what Jessica thinks.”

“Trial experience?”

“More like, settling with public defenders experience.”

“Connections? That office draws a lot of really talented recruits, and not just from Harvard.”

“Maybe? But come on, Scottie, career civil servants?”

“Not to mention, mentoring from Cameron Dennis.”

“Jessica’s the only mentor I ever…”

“Harvey,” Dana said, finally, turning to face him and realizing just how seriously he was taking her by the fact that he was looking her in the eyes instead of the breasts. “The last time you were at that firm, you worked in the mail room, and that was only two years ago. A decent portion of the junior associates still remember you, I’m sure. Do you really think they’ll take you seriously if you come back straight from law school?”

“I’d make them take me seriously,” he said stubbornly, and she rolled her eyes.

“With that hair? Good luck.”

He scoffed, and she changed her tune.

“But if you come after a successful few years at the D.A.’s office…”

“They’ll have to respect me.”

“You’ll have earned it,” she said, shrugging. “Besides, I assume Jessica’ll bring you back as a third-year or a fourth-year or whatever, right? With the appropriate salary and freedom from the shittiness of being a first-year?”

“Yeah…”

“Then sounds like a win-win to me. It’s not as if you have loans, you’ll do okay on an ADA salary for a few years.”

“I just wish she trusted me,” he said, looking slightly embarrassed but earnest, and Dana nodded.

“Honestly, Harvey? The fact that she got you a good job at a place where lots of lawyers would be happy to make their careers, and she still believes you’ll come back? It sounds like she trusts you a whole lot.”

He looked down, and she continued.

“Hell, now, I almost wanna work for this woman myself, and I’ve never even met her.”

“The firm does take first-years,” Harvey offered, cracking a smile, “just, apparently, not me.”

“Good to know,” she grinned, reaching for her pizza again. “Who knows, maybe we can be rival associates.”

“I’d beat your pants off,” he said immediately, to her withering stare.

“My GPA is higher,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, and your pants are already off,” he said with a smirk, hand resting on her bare thigh.

“So are yours,” she retorted.

“It’s my bedroom! It’s my _bed_!”

And subtly the mood had changed, and they were cheerful and carefree again, careers and futures pushed aside.


	13. in case it is the last time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Graduation.
> 
> June 8, 2000.

“Dana, come on, pose for a picture with your boyfriend – Harvey, talk some sense into this girl, will you?”

“Mom!”

“Honey, I just want pictures. It’s not every day my daughter graduates from Harvard!”

“Sure, Mrs. Scott,” Harvey said easily, coming over and looping his arm around Dana’s waist. He grinned cheesily at the camera, and she couldn’t help laughing as her mother took probably a whole roll’s worth of photos.

“See, all the rest of us are so eager to get these stupid hats off, but it’s actually a better look for Harvey than his real hair, so – ”

“Still with the hair, Scottie? You really need a new joke.”

“And, ‘you really need a new joke,’ is a great way to describe that hair, thank you,” she said, laughing again when he planted a wet, sloppy kiss on her cheek.

“Congratulations, both of you,” her brother cut in, holding his hands up and shaking his head a little, which only set them both off once again.

“Two Harvard-educated lawyers,” he remarked, grinning, to his wife.

“Well, not quite,” cut in a rich, elegant female voice. Dana turned and saw a woman worthy of such a voice: Tall and imposing, impeccably dressed and strikingly _gorgeous_.

“Huh?” asked Andy, confused, as the woman walked closer.

“They still have to pass the bar exam, pass their character and fitness evaluations, and be sworn in,” she said coolly, but she was smiling. “But I have no doubt these two will manage. Congratulations, Harvey.”

“Thank you, Jessica,” he said, sincerely, letting go of Dana so that he could shake hands with the woman – Jessica Pearson, obviously. They held on for a long time, and Dana waited for the hug that never materialized.

“Jessica, I want you to meet Scottie – that is, this is Dana Scott. Scottie, Jessica Pearson,” Harvey said, turning to her, and Dana offered her hand.

“Of course. The Fay Diploma recipient. Congratulations, Ms. Scott. To spend three _years_ putting up with this one, and still find enough time for your studies to finish first in your class…”

“Well, I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t a challenge, but…”

“I’m right here,” Harvey said, mock-offended.

“We know,” both women replied, in unison, and they smiled at each other with real pleasure when they did.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Pearson,” Dana said, finally completing the handshake.

“Please, call me Jessica.”

“Only if you’ll call me Scottie. Really, it’s such a pleasure. I’ve heard so much about you.”

“All good, I hope?” Jessica asked, and she threw a smirk at Harvey.

“He thinks you’re hot,” she offered with a grin.

“That does sound like Harvey,” replied Jessica, but the obvious affection in her eyes mitigated her rueful tone. Dana smiled again at the clearly mutual respect they had for each other, and turned suddenly to her parents.

“Mom, why don’t you take a picture of Harvey with Jessica?” she said, eager both to get Harvey some photos with his mentor and herself some freedom from the lens. As her mother started snapping away, Dana wandered off, accepting congratulations from various professors and hugs from various fellow graduates and knowing she would likely never see most of them again. It was a heavier feeling than she’d expected it to be, somehow so much more sobering than graduating college had been, and she walked along the grass outside Langdell, lost in bittersweet thoughts, until she looked up and saw Harvey watching her with a searing expression that she couldn’t quite place. But suddenly she _wanted_ him and she wasn’t sure how she was going to get through the rest of the university’s commencement exercises or dinner with her family.

\--

It was a long, tiring day – amazing how doing essentially nothing but sitting in large groups, walking short distances, and smiling for pictures could wear a person out – and Dana was mentally, emotionally, and physically drained when she finally turned up outside Harvey’s door. He answered right away, and as good as he had looked in his suit, the worn Harvard T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms were somehow better, and it wasn’t just exhaustion that had her falling into his arms. He pulled her in close, shutting the door gently behind her, and led her inside.

“How was your family?” he asked, gently, once he’d settled her on the couch.

“Happy. Proud. Energetic,” she said, shaking her head a little. “I’m pretty sure my mom spent a developing country’s annual GDP on film, and I’m never smiling again, by the way.” She laughed, then, and snuggled closer. “But it was good. How was dinner with Jessica?”

“Exactly like dinner with Jessica always is,” he told the top of her head. She felt his smirk, even if she couldn’t see it. “Delicious…elegant…beautifully served…and on me.”

Dana laughed a little, but she could hear the faint pride in Harvey’s voice, that after years of living through Jessica’s support he finally could be the one buying something for her. She half-suspected that was why Jessica had done it.

“Sounds perfect,” she said softly, swinging her legs up and shifting until her head was in his lap and she was looking up into his face. He looked down at her, faintly bemused.

“Shut up, I’m tired,” she told him, but he was smiling and it was fine. Perfect.

“So you _don’t_ want to meet the guys at the bar.”

“Ugh. No. I just want to stay here and not get up.” She paused. “I should have changed like you, this dress is awful, I haven’t really breathed all day. Can I borrow a T-shirt or something?”

“Scottie…” he said, quietly, reluctantly, and she felt her heart stop.

“Yeah?”

“What happens now?”

“You move back to New York,” she answered promptly, “where you’ll be a kickass ADA. And I move to DC, cleverly avoiding the worst of the summer, and help write brilliant concurrences and biting dissents.”

“And we break up,” he finished, flatly, and suddenly her eyes were pooling and she was doing her best to stop the tears from showing.

“We probably should,” she agreed, working hard to keep her voice level. “I mean…I’ll miss you, but…when has long-distance ever worked?”

“And we’ll both be busy,” Harvey added.

“Busy, and stressed, and not exactly in a position to afford a lot of trips back and forth.”

“This should probably be it. You know…so we can end things as friends.”

The way he said the word, “friends,” all but broke Dana’s heart, but if Harvey could take this, she could, too.

“Right,” she said softly, “so there are no hurt feelings.”

She wondered, as they sat in silence, whether it was even possible for her to hurt more.

“Are you still staying over?” he asked quietly after a few moments. She nodded a little without taking her head out of his lap.

“If that’s all right.”

“Hey. Scottie. We…this…we’re still going to be friends, okay? I don’t expect you to just…walk out of my life, forget about me. That’s not what I want.” He paused. “I’m not going to forget about you.”

“You know it,” she said, in a half-attempt at humor that fell pretty flat.

“Then yes,” he said, eyes crinkling as she frowned. “You can borrow a T-shirt.”

“Harvey…” she said slowly, turning her head slightly until she knew he could feel her breath on his cock through his sweatpants. “If we’re going out, we’re going out with a bang.”

He let out a quiet, shaky laugh. She slowly got to her feet, pulling him with her before she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him. Then he reached behind her, fumbling with the hook-and-eye before yanking on her zipper, and she enjoyed the pleasure of a deep breath before his mouth was on hers again, his hands firm at her back, making her arch closer to him. And it was all she wanted – to kiss him, to be in his arms, to know that he was warm and real and _looking_ at her like no other man – no other _person_ – had ever looked at her before.

Their clothes were in a pile on the living room floor by the time he took her to bed, and he was urgent and passionate but heartbreakingly thorough. She couldn’t fault him, though; she was doing the same thing – trying to commit to memory the shape of his jaw, the color of his eyes, the press of his hips into hers and the way his breathing changed when his cock first slid inside her.

Dana had never really been a live-in-the-moment kind of girl: She’d planned, and studied, and worked her whole life, and she’d always been looking ahead. But for this moment – these moments – her last night of law school, her last night as Harvey’s girlfriend, her last night before the rest of her life – she could do it. She had to do it. She never wanted to forget this. She knew it was a memory she would want forever.

Although as it turned out, when forever came, it was the memories she’d made without trying that left her breathless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout-out to [Brian Fitzpatrick](https://law.vanderbilt.edu/bio/brian-fitzpatrick), who _actually_ graduated first in the Harvard Law School Class of 2000. (I mean, look, we obviously knew it wasn't really Scottie since she is fictional, but good stuff, Prof. Fitzpatrick!)


	14. when we were young

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Con law.
> 
> September 1997.

Dana Scott firmly pushed down the butterflies in her tummy as she took a seat in the imposing lecture hall, somehow much scarier than undergrad had ever been.

Well, not really, if she were being fair. Freshman year had been terrifying in its own right, and she had felt tiny and insignificant and unsure about everything, despite the casual confidence that it was second nature for her to display. But that had been four years ago, and when she’d left Hyde Park in May the same professors who had seemed so formidable had had nothing but smiles and hugs and fond remembrances for her as she left, waving over her shoulder, off to conquer the world. And now here she was, in Cambridge, at Harvard Law School, settling into her very first constitutional law class, where she had no friends yet and the professor had no way of knowing that she was a force to be reckoned with.

If she still was. Chicago was a great school, and she’d killed it there, but her classmates now were the best of the best, people who’d similarly killed it at similarly great schools, and there was always a chance Dana would come through this experience as mediocre – a horrifying thought, but one she had to acknowledge was a possibility. She knew perfectly well that she was smarter than most people, that she was tenacious and charming and could go toe-to-toe with the very best, that she was good at using the fact that she was petite and pretty and young-looking to her advantage rather than letting it count against her.

But this was Harvard, and maybe the very best was so much better here than she’d imagined, so much better that she couldn’t compete.

The professor – Robert Dyson, according to the syllabus – walked into the room looking every inch the Ivy League instructor from a movie, and Dana took a deep breath. This was it. Time to see what you’re made of, Scottie, because this is the major league.

“Good morning. I’m Bob Dyson. Welcome to Constitutional Law.”

There was a faint scattering of murmurs among the class, unsure whether they were expected to respond or not. Dana split the difference by mouthing the words, “Good morning,” without actually saying anything.

“Great,” Dyson continued, somewhat sarcastically. “All right, then, let’s get started. Ms…” he began, with the obvious expression of someone who’d been told to call on more female students. “Front row,” he finished, finally, locking eyes with Dana. “Who wrote the majority opinion in _McCulloch v. Maryland_?”

“John Marshall,” Dana said coolly, willing her voice not to betray her nerves, and he nodded.

“Dissent?”

“There were no dissents,” she replied, immediately. “Or concurrences. Marshall wrote the unanimous opinion of the Court…in favor of McCulloch, the Second Bank of the United States, and Congress’s application of the necessary and proper clause,” she added, just in case that was going to be his next question.

“Correct,” Dyson said, not smiling but making a vague gesture in her direction that Dana was willing to count as a victory. Her pen continued moving, obediently chronicling Dyson’s comments about taxation, and federalism, and the implied powers, but the butterflies in her tummy had turned from fear into exhilaration. She could do this.

\--

“Well, here I am, now what were your other two wishes?”

Dana looked up at the voice – a man’s voice, outer borough New York accent and just arrogant enough to put her on edge – and raised her eyebrows.

“That I’d never have to look at whatever that dead animal on your head is?”

“That’s only one,” he said, smoothly, and God _damn_ was this man cocky. Surprisingly cute, but cocky.

“The third’s personal,” she replied. “Who are you, anyway?”

“Harvey Specter,” he answered, holding out his hand. “And you’re Ms. Front Row.”

“Dana Scott,” she corrected, not shaking his hand and waiting for him to lower it, sheepishly, like the douchebag he was.

“I dunno, I kinda liked Ms. Front Row,” Harvey said, not at all chagrined as he took back his hand.

“My friends call me Scottie,” she told him, adding, just as he prepared to speak, “ _Don’t_ take that as an invitation.”

“Scottie,” he said, rolling the word around in his mouth. “It suits you. Now, Scottie, the reason I came over here is – ”

“No.”

“You haven’t even heard what I – ”

“And yet, my answer is still no.”

“We should get to know each other. We’re the same year.”

“Yeah, and so are five hundred other people. Some of them have _got_ to be pretty girls. Go bother them.”

“I don’t want them; I want you,” he informed her, charmingly, and Dana rolled her eyes hard.

“Never going to happen,” she said with a smile, rising to her feet and shaking her head.

“I can wait,” Harvey said, grinning.

“I said never,” she reminded him.

“We’ll see about that.”


End file.
